


Already Written

by Oparu



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-01
Updated: 2010-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-09 05:59:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oparu/pseuds/Oparu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beverly and Jean-Luc are pulled out of their timeline and accidently sent sixty years into the future. They discover that versions of them lived married and had children, even grandchildren. They have to come to terms with their other paths, and the fact that they have no place in history anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Already Written

_Starfleet Academy, Earth  
2433_

"And how is your experiment going?" Xosen asked. A sheet of music moved in front of his line of the commlink and Yaxara grinned at the screen.

"I'm getting it," she promised, tapping her fingers on the console in front of her. "I think. You'd think this would be easier with twenty-fifth century technology. Wesley Crusher didn't even have a real subspace sensor array or latitudinal spatial mapping and he made a static warp bubble."

Xosen's music shuffled, filling the lab with the odd sound of paper. "He was a genius."

"You're a genius, dad's a genius. Aunt Abby's a genius. There's no shortage of genii- geniuses- irrationally smart people- in the family."

"Maybe it was Nana," he joked, grinning at her over his instrument. The dark wood was a rich purple hue and Yaxara didn't recognise it at all. She should but her older brother always had a new project. "Nana was definitely a genius."

"And Grandpapa wasn't?" she teased him, conjuring up the memory of her grandfather's smile. The lines on his face always crinkled up when he laughed. He'd been dead for eleven years, and she'd been very young when he died. Her mother's parents were still alive, and visited frequently. They were solid, stable, well-to-do Betazoid textile traders. They sent the best birthday presents and told telepathic stories that made all of them giggle, even now that all of her siblings were grown up.

On the other hand, Her father's parents had been heroes. Not even ordinary heroes, but life-long, genius-calibre, highly decorated heroes. Grandpapa was in a few Klingon songs. He had his own starship combat maneuver. Nana had been head of Starfleet Medical, cured diseases and killed a Borg Queen. Grandpapa had killed one too, Yaxara reminded herself, but he'd had Data to help him. Nana had fought hers alone.

By the four deities, they'd both been on three Enterprises. How was a Starfleet cadet supposed to contend with that, a genius Aunt who was always on the other side of the galaxy and an uncle who kept popping onto the Federation news service from Vulcan. How many times had she explained that yes, that was her uncle and no, he didn't get beaten up by his wife when she went through Pon Farr.

At least, no one had ever talked about it, and Yaxara thought her mother would. Her mother was remarkably calm about sex and apparently this had been a bit of shock when she'd started dated her father, who, thankfully, was a perfectly ordinary man with twenty-some languages in his head.

"I don't need to be able to sense you to guess that look," Xosen chided her over subspace. "You're incredible. You don't have to get assigned to the _Enterprise_ on your first assignment to prove that.

"I'd take a long range subspace transceiver array if it means I make Ensign," Yaxara replied, winking at him. "Okay, I've gotta go. This bubble has a finite window and if I want to get my readings done before--"

Xosen played his goodbyes in a trilling, joyful melody. "Like it?" he asked, grinning. He ran a hand rakishly through his thick, red-brown hair. "It's Andorian."

Yaxara looked wistfully at his hair. Their older sister, Senrika, had inherited to the 'Howard' genes and had Nana's beautiful red hair. Xosen's matched his black eyes remarkably well and made him look dashing. He'd always been handsome; being a musician was just icing on the cake. Yaxara had straight brown hair that was not beautiful and wavy like her mothers, or distractingly gorgeous like Aunt Abby's. Even her Vulcan uncle, Tuvren, had better hair; hers had elegance.

"It's great."

"You'll be great," he promised her. "I heard mom and dad are coming?"

"Mom managed to get a ride on the Andromeda," she reported, grinning at him. That would make him jealous. Their honorary Aunt Beth was the CMO, her husband was the chief engineer and that meant she'd get to see them both at graduation.

"You, mom and dad barely make it to my first recital," Xosen paused and shook his cleaning rag at her. "And now you get mom, dad, Aunt Beth and the boys, and Sam and Leo at your graduation?"

"It's just good timing."

"Uh-huh."

"Really."

"Uh-huh."

"I love you?"

"You'd better." He put down his instrument, whatever it was, and waved at the screen. "Love you too. Picard out."

Yaxara turned her attention back to her experiment. She almost had it at saturation. She just needed to--

The flash of light made her jump back from the console. Maybe the EPS relay had overloaded or she'd miscalculated. A wind blasted through the lab for a moment, full of light and energy. Yaxara covered her face quickly and prayed she hadn't damaged anything too difficult to replace. That wouldn't go well at all this close to graduation. Two dark shapes, almost humanoid looking, flew out of the light and slammed into the floor on the other side of her console.

When the wind ceased as abruptly as it had started, and the light faded away, she pulled herself cautiously to her feet. Her mind was full of confusion, but her training too her it wasn't hers. She was surprised, but mostly grateful nothing in the lab was smoking. The emotions in her head were definitely confused.

"Are you all right?" Someone asked, his voice soft and incredibly familiar.

"I think so," someone replied, and her voice Yaxara recognised immediately.

"Nana?" she asked in a whisper, circling the console and staring down at the two people who'd been flung out of the collapse of the war bubble. They wore old-fashioned uniforms. The ones with the black trousers and the huge patches of colour on the chest and arms. The man was bald, wearing red, and he had his hand protectively on the woman's arm. He got slowly to his feet and helped her up.

Yaxara could only stare at them both as the woman, who wore blue, straightened her hair and shook off the man's protective hand.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks," she told him, looking around.

"I don't know where we are," he replied to her unasked question. "It looks vaguely Starfleet."

"Earth," Yaxara interrupted. "San Francisco, Starfleet Academy's subspace field lab."

Both of them turned to look at her and their joint confusion felt like a blast of fog across her mind. She smiled at them, then covered her mouth to keep from gasping in surprise. It was her grandparents, or some version of them. She'd seen holos of them this young and their wedding pictures but she'd never thought.

She caught herself just before she ran over to hug them both.

"I'm sorry," she rambled. "I'm so sorry. I guess."

"It's all right, Cadet," her grandfather said calmly. How could she have not known his voice the moment he spoke? It was Jean-Luc Picard, standing right in front of her, alive. He could read her insignia, Yaxara realised as she touched it in surprise.

"We won't hurt you," her grandmother added, also looking concerned. She was so beautiful and suddenly she seemed so much shorter than she'd been.

Yaxara had to remind herself that she'd been only ten when they died, of course they were shorter.

"What's your name?" her grandfather asked. He took a step closer to her and studied her face. He couldn't see the resemblance, could he? She'd been told since she was a little girl that she had Nana's cheekbones. If anyone saw that, it would be Grandpapa.

"Cadet Picard, sir," she answered, grinning even as her eyes stung.

The young version of Nana smirked, obviously amused. She folded her hands over her chest and looked at him. "Fancy that."

"Cadet Picard?" The young Grandpapa repeated. "At Starfleet Academy."

"Fourth year, sir," she straightened up to full attention. He was a captain after all. "Astrophysics and Communications. Warp Field theory is a hobby of mine, sir."

"At ease," he said with a wave of his hand.

Yaxara fell into rest position but she couldn't stop staring at both of them. Nana's blue eyes had all the life she remembered in them. Nana was trying very hard not to laugh and Grandpapa but she didn't seen wedding rings on either of their hands. What year had she pulled them from? Were they married yet? Was she messing up the timeline just by talking to them?

"What's your first name?" Nana asked kindly. "You're at least part Betazoid, aren't you?"

"Half, sir," Yaxara reported. The confusion was turning to wonder and that sensation in her grandparents' familiar minds made her want to hug them all the more. "Yaxara Orxa Picard is my full name. My father knew how important it was to keep the family name, so he compromised, sir."

"And your father would be?" Nana's eyes were bright with amusement.

Somewhere, deep below it, Yaxara felt something tingle for a moment. Xosen might have been able to pull it out, he was the most accomplished empath in their family. Her mother would have known in an instant, but she was still on her way. Gods, she was in trouble.

"Dr. Daniel Picard, Federation Linguistic Corp, sir," she reported, barely resisting the urge to just explain everything. "Permission to speak freely, captain?"

"Please," Nana said. She wanted to know what was going on.

Grandpapa paused her for a moment. "Would you be risking the timeline, cadet?"

"I don't know, sir," Yaxara answered. "I doubt it. I was experimenting with a static warp bubble, not time travel."

"Wesley was just showing me his static warp bubble," Nana said, touching his arm. "I was down in engineering. There was a-"

"Flash of light," Grandpapa finished for her. "Then we were here."

"The Academy, sir," Yaxara offered helpfully.

"Of course," Grandpapa said, taking another step towards her. "What stardate is it?"  
"110825.3," Yaxara answered with a wince.

Nana's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Sixty-six years into the future?"

"So it would appear," Grandpapa said. His eyes looked less kind, even almost suspicious. "What kind of experiment were you performing?"

"A controlled recreation of the warp bubble Ensign Crusher made on the _USS Enterprise_ on stardate 44161.2, sir," she reported, moving to the console to call it up. The three-dimensional, holographic representation shocked them both, and she remembered that technology was still relatively recent. "We were required to repeat a historical experiment for the last part of warp theory."

"And why did you pick this particular one?" Nana asked, reaching out to touch the diagram.

Yaxara closed her eyes and sighed heavily. When she opened them, her grandparents were still staring at her, fifty years younger than they were supposed to be and obviously confused.

"I've been thinking about my grandparents," she began, staring down at the floor instead of up at them. If she looked at them, she was going to cry and that just wasn't allowed, even if her eyes stung. "They died, twelve years ago, and I missed them. I'm about to graduate from the Academy and it would have meant a lot to both of them. They were so proud Abby, I mean, my Aunt Abby, went to the Academy, and when Aunt Beth and Uncle Andy graduated, dad said everyone was there. I mean, Aunt Beth and Uncle Andy aren't my real aunt and uncle, they're Admiral Riker and Ambassador Troi's--"

She winced and stopped. "I'm sorry, that's not important. I ramble."

"It's all right, Cadet," Nana said kindly. "We're just a little confused."

"I know," Yaxara said. "I can feel it." She dragged her eyes up, even though they were damp with tears. "You're my grandparents. I was thinking about you when I activated the static warp bubble and I must have pulled you out of time. I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

"Your grandparents," Nana repeated, hanging on to Grandpapa's arm as he stared open-mouthed. "Not just him, but both of us?"

"In my time, 2433, you have three children and five grandchildren. Everyone keeps wondering if my Aunt Izzie will ever-"

"Izzie," Nana interrupted, wrapping her fingers tightly around Grandpapa's arm. "Your aunt's name is Isabelle?"

"Yes," Yaxara nodded, smiling as Grandpapa covered Nana's hand protectively. "He's the youngest. My father, Daniel, is the oldest and My Aunt Abby's in the middle."

Grandpapa and Nana looked at each other, giving Yaxara just enough time to wipe away her tears. Nana looked upset, but Yaxara could sense the warmth in her heart. Nana was touched, deeply by something and she was almost overwhelmed.

"Beverly," Grandpapa said, touching her shoulder. "It's all right."

Nana nodded, blinking her eyes rapidly. She looked directly at him as if she didn't dare look away. "I can't believe you-we- called her Isabelle."

"Hey." Grandpapa squeezed her shoulder, then turned her to face him. "Of course we would."

Yaxara's attention was torn from them as the door behind her opened.

Captain La Forge peered in at her with his artificial eyes from the corridor. "Why is it that when someone's up late, it's always you, Cadet?"

"Forgive me, sir," she said, snapping to attention again. "I seem to have made a mistake."

"A mistake," he replied. Walking slowly in, Captain La Forge moved very well for someone of his age. The rumours were that he'd been contemplating retirement for the last decade; he just couldn't get himself out of the classroom. He liked the kids 'too damn much', in his words. "Cadet, we checked and rechecked your data so your experiment couldn't pull anyone in like it did Doctor Picard-I suppose she was Doctor Crusher back in 2367..." he would have kept talking, but he'd seen them and tailed off.

Yaxara tilted her head towards the her guests. Both of them had their eyes on Captain La Forge and were once again radiating waves of surprise.

"Geordi?" Nana asked.

"It can't be," Grandpapa added. "It's really you."

"Where's your VISOR?" Nana demanded, curious.

"No," Captain La Forge shook his head. He blinked three times and then pressed on his eyelids to adjust his artificial eyes. "This can't--Captain, Doctor, you two can't be here."  


* * *

Beverly grabbed Jean-Luc's arm, staring at Geordi. He'd aged at least fifty years since she'd seen him. Maybe more. She didn't recognise the lab or the young woman with brown hair and Betazoid eyes who knew them. Jean-Luc was the only familiar thing

"I have implants," Geordi explained. His voice was old, rougher and deeper than it had been but his smile was exactly the same. His hair was white and the lines on his face were etched deep. He took another step closer, looking from her to Jean-Luc and started to laugh. "You guys look like you walked out of a holo. Straight off good old D."

"Geordi," Jean-Luc said, taking a step closer. When she squeezed his arm, the muscles were firm beneath her fingers. He slipped his hand around hr back, guiding her along with him. "What's going on?"

"You got pulled," Geordi said, shaking his head. "I can give you the whole explanation but you really don't need to know. I'm gonna have the cadet here," he nodded at the girl.

Their granddaughter.

"Go give temporal investigations a call," Geordi ordered the cadet. "We'll let them clear this first before we do anything else."

The cadet, Cadet Picard impossibly enough, nodded to Geordi and disappeared from the room.

"It's all right," Geordi promised them both. He leaned on the edge of the counter and waved them closer. "It's fine. We understand time a lot better than we did back then. If you've been displaced, we can probably send you right back where you were."

Beverly released Jean-Luc's arm and closed the last of the distance between herself and Geordi. She'd never seen his eyes clear and they were beautiful. The gold and blue irises made him look distinctive and the VISOR interface hadn't even left a scar on Geordi's lined skin.

"She said she was our granddaughter."

"Beverly--"

"If can't hurt," she argued with Jean-Luc. "If we weren't still going to have her father-" she couldn't believe what she was saying. "If he wasn't going to exist, she'd disappear. Geordi wouldn't know her."

"Hey," Geordi help up his hands to calm her. "Wait for the professionals. Temporal Investigations will be here in a minute."

"Temporal investigations?" Jean-Luc asked, glancing around the room. "That's new."

"It became a necessity," Geordi explained. He fixed his bright eyes on Beverly. "No more headaches," he told her proudly. "They'be been gone for decades."

"I'm glad."

Geordi headed for a chair by the wall and sank into it with a long sigh. "I can't get over how young look. Will and I debated for quite awhile if we had the right picture for the monument. Didn't want to get either of you looking too old or too young. I think the one we picked was taken a few years after your present."

"A monument?" Jean-Luc's curiosity was aching. Beverly could hear it in his voice.

She couldn't get him mind off that girl. Her father was Jean-Luc's and her's. Decades ago, she'd given birth to Jean-Luc's son. A few years from now in her time, she would do the same thing. She'd have too. The siblings would follow the first boy.

She must have married Jean-Luc at some point. When and how eluded her but she knew it had happened. The idea of what she'd felt for him and what it must have been like to know he loved her made her shiver.

"You okay doc?" Geordi waved to a few more chairs in the corner. "Sit," he said. "Relax. Trust me. Everything's going to be fine."

"That's my line," Beverly teased weakly.

Jean-Luc dragged over a chair and agreed with Geordi. "I can think of far worse places to be," he reminded her. "Held hostage..."

He didn't mention Minos but her mind raced back to that damn cave and the agony of being buried in the sand. Jean-Luc sat down beside her and she reached across for his hand. His eyebrows raised as he patted the back of hers. She was nearly as grateful for him now as she'd been back then.

"You're not married yet, are you?" Geordi asked. "I can remember all the phase variances of every nacelle I've ever worked on, but I'll be damned if I can remember when you got married."

"We're not," Jean-Luc replied. His voice cracked a little and Beverly squeezed his hand a little tighter.

"It was a great party," Geordi promised them both, chuckling again. "Really great."   


* * *

Ensign Picard, from temporal investigations, arrived less than an hour after Jean-Luc and Beverly had. Cadet Picard and Geordi, Captain La Forge - Jean-Luc corrected- now had the lab full of scientists trying to figure out how two people could arrive from decades ago and light years away.

This new face, Ensign Picard, carried her PADD with an air of authority Jean-Luc found achingly familiar. She had red hair, like Beverly's, but wore it up in a tight knot on the back of her head. Like her sister, she had black irises, and Jean-Luc thought she might share his surprise. His son- their son- he amended, looking at Beverly, had married a Betazoid. Had they gone naked to the wedding?

"Captain Picard, Doctor Crusher," she said, "please come with me." Pointing down the corridor, she led them both into a small office. The large window in the wall opened on a view of the grounds at night. Ensign Picard indicated a grey sofa near the window and waited for them to sit. She went to the replicator and ordered tea, earl grey, and served Jean-Luc first.

"Will earl grey be acceptable, doctor?"

"Thank you," Beverly said. The cups were familiar black china, Starfleet issue. The warmth of it filled his hands and Beverly wrapped her fingers around her own cup.

"I understand this must be a shock for you," Ensign Picard began. Her tone was professionally sympathetic and reminiscent of Deanna. "Please, be patient while we solve the mystery you have presented to us."

"Can you tell us how we got here?" Jean-Luc pressed.

"Cadet Picard's experiment brought you here," she paused and her tone softened. "Temporal analysis was much more limited in your time and now, we have a better understand of subspace and time. The monitoring equipment in the lab recorded no chroniton surge when you appeared The main detection station on Drusican Prime did not detect a shift in this timeline. Both indicate that your journey was not through time, as we understand it, but through subspace."

"What does that mean?" Beverly asked. "We're not from the past? Some kind of alternate reality?"

She did not sip her tea. The familiar taste comforted him, and he touched her leg, wishing he could offer the same. Jean-Luc set down his half-full cup and turned on the sofa to look at Beverly. He understood what Ensign Picard was insinuating, and his heart ached that he would have to explain it.

"Cadet and Ensign Picard are our direct descendants," he began, "if we had disappeared from this timeline, they could not be here."

"So, there's a version of us, back in the past," Beverly realised.

Her blue eyes were bright and thoughtful. Her lips twisted once, almost smiling. His own expression felt like stone. Everything else they'd been through with time travel, even his own duplicate, had gone back to normal. He rested his hand on her knee.

"If we've been duplicated," he said gently. "We will not be able to go back. Two versions of us would destroy the timeline."

"We're stuck here?"

Ensign Picard flinched back reflexively from Beverly's emotional response. It appeared in her blue eyes a moment later, and her jaw tightened. He'd seen that look before and his stomach twitched that she had to go through it again.

"We have to go home," Beverly said. Leaning forward, she set her tea don abruptly and nearly spilled her tea. "We can't...what year is it? 243-something? We're dead. Cadet Picard just said we're dead. There's a monument for godsakes. We're dead."

"You have the same temporal signature as your original time," Ensign Picard explained. "This timeline. The original versions of you are back on the _Enterprise-D_. They will live their lives, get married, and give birth to my father and my aunts. Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher have their destiny and they have already lived it. Yours is not that path."

"Wesley," Beverly sighed, shaking her head. "What happened to him? Is he all right? Is he still alive? You can't just ask me to never see him again."

"You do see him," Ensign Picard said, sympathy etched on her face. You had so many stories about Wesley for us when we were small."

She crossed her arms, dropping her professionalism to smile. Her sudden smile held the same surprising vulnerability her sister's had. They knew them. These young women missed them. She looked at them with a longing Jean-Luc thought he recognised. They were family.

"My father and mother are arriving tomorrow," she said. A trace of hope crept into her smile. "Please, I can show you your logs, explain your history. We have arranged quarters for you near Starfleet headquarters."

Her earnest tone reminded Jean-Luc how young she must be. She wanted to help them.

He nodded first. "I look forward to meeting your father."

"Don't worry," Ensign Picard promised as her smile turned sweet. "He got Nana's hair."  


* * *

"You finally made Admiral," Beverly teased. Passing him a picture of himself, years older in an Admiral's uniform, she held his hand a moment longer than she needed too.

The uniform itself was a fashion he didn't recognise and too white for his taste. He glanced at it, studying himself and noting the lines around his mouth and eyes. All thoughts of how he'd aged changed when he saw her. Her arms were wrapped around hers and she was smiling proudly. She also had another pip on her collar and there was a little grey lightening her hair; her beauty shone through.

Jean-Luc held the ADD reverently for a moment. Looking at the elder Beverly in the picture, he raised his eyes to the vibrant younger one standing in front of him.

"We get married," she paused, smiling at him tentatively. Neither of them could make it a joke and her bright blue eyes were full of shock. "Almost six months from the day we left. I read my logs. I become trapped in Wesley's warp bubble experiment. The universe was shrinking all around me until it was just you and I..."

She shook her head, twining her fingers together. "Something happened between us. Something changed. My personal logs--" she stopped. A pink flush crept over her face. "They're all about you. I- we--"

He hugged her tightly, flattening her arms against her chest between them. She resisted for a moment, then he felt her shuddering sigh. Her hands slipped out, then her arms went tightly around his neck. They just stood there, marvelling at the life they'd yet to live.

"We agreed to have a baby. I got pregnant. It happened so fast Jean-Luc," she whispered. "I didn't know you even wanted--"

"Beverly," he interrupted her, breaking the hug and holding her hands firmly in his. His own voice had nearly abandoned him and his worlds were almost insubstantial."All I've been reading is how much I love you. The Borg took the light out of universe when they took me. I've been trying to find it again, but it's been so dark."

Her lips touched his cheek, leaving a hint of heat where they'd been.

"You changed that for me. Beverly, the day you told me you were pregnant...you crawled into bed with me and whispered it through the dark. That morning, I wrote that the whole universe was a brighter place than it had ever been."

She sank down on the sofa, dropping her head into her hands. Her red hair tumbled down around her fingers and he realised that there was a future where he could smooth it back. Beverly reached up for him and he took his place at her side. Her hand clung tightly to his and he stroked the back of her wrist with his free hand.

"What happens now?" she asked in a whisper.

"We stay."

"We're antiques," she reminded him. Beverly shook her head, squeezing his fingers that much tighter. "They probably don't even need doctors in the twenty-fifth century."

"We'll catch up. I'm sure even twenty-fourth century antique officers have their uses."

"You really think we can?" Beverly's voice was bitter and tinged dark with fear. "I don't want to retire just yet. I- we- were so happy on the _Enterprise_." She turned her head, facing him. "Jean-Luc, I feel crazy saying it, but I'm jealous."

"Of the life we didn't have," he finished. Jean-Luc leaned closer and his forehead touched hers. "Who's to say we won't?"

Her lips were achingly close to his as they moved with her words. "You think being trapped with you, sixty years in the future is enough of a life-changing event to bring us together?"

"It's still a warp bubble," he reminded her. He'd meant to say more. He'd wanted to tell her that they could wait and let what was between them develop slowly. They'd didn't have to rush anything, they had all the time in the universe.

She summed it up much more succinctly and kissed him. The warmth and pressure of her lips against his seemed to reach through time. The other him had been healed by her and their familiar. That other Jean-Luc had found peace and happiness in her arms; something neither of them had thought possible until they knew love.

Sitting beside her in the wrong century, the only thing Jean-Luc needed to do was kiss her back.   


* * *

Beverly paced past the door of their temporary quarters, looked at him for a moment, and kept pacing. Jean-Luc's expression was quiet, even calm. He was watching her pace, but he hadn't said anything yet. She reached the wall and turned around again.

That made him smile and pat the sofa next to him by the window. "Sit."

Beverly shook her head, crossing her arms over her chest as she approached him. Her stomach was twisted into knots and even after all the tea she'd drank since waking up, her throat was dry.

Daniel Picard, their son from another life, was arriving in ten minutes and she nearly buzzed from anticipation. They'd made it five years into Daniel's life last night, taking turns reading their logs aloud. Daniel had been born in Jean-Luc's fourth year on the _Enterprise_, his sister Abby followed him two years later, and finally Isabelle, who was their youngest, had been born on a new _Enterprise_.

They had scrolled through log after log last night. Reading stories of their married life and their adored children to each other until they'd fallen asleep, they'd shared a bed. Waking up next to him had been infinitely better than waking up alone. Jean-Luc had made tea, watched her fix her hair and remained a point of calm.

Last night, she'd kissed him. He'd returned the gesture with sweet enthusiasm. They hadn't talked about it, but she didn't know what to say. She had loved him in this timeline. She would love him in her future. Beverly didn't know if that meant she loved him now. Falling in love could be fast and breathless, but it didn't feel right to tumble head over heels for Jean-Luc. He deserved something more thoughtful. 

He touched her shoulder, then her chin and when she didn't move away, they kissed. With him leading it began more slowly than the last, but quickly became passionate enough to leave her breathless when they parted. His hand was on the back on her neck and stayed there when the warmth of his lips left hers.

"Relax," Jean-Luc reminded her.

She nodded, but it was difficult to still the fluttering of her stomach. "You're not nervous?"

The fingers on the back of her neck slipped through her hair and Jean-Luc smiled at her gently.

"Terrified."

Closing her eyes, she leaned against his forehead. The scent of him, fresh from the sonic shower, was as comforting as the hand that remained on her back. His cheek was smooth from his shave, and her fingers slid easily along it.

The chime to their quarters made her jump. Jean-Luc's fingers dug into her back and he stood, straightening the civilian shirt he'd replicated. The blue fabric was cut in a design Beverly didn't recognise, but a great deal had changed in sixty years. When he'd picked blue, she'd almost gone with red, just for the contrast. Her dark green top was simple but she felt out of place in it.

"Captain, Doctor?" a pleasant male voice called through the door. "May I come in?"

"Come," Jean-Luc called.

Beverly stood next to him, trying to decide what to do with her hands. He took one of hers and they faced the door together.

The man who walked through was nearly Beverly's age. He had his father's hazel eyes, slightly tousled, thick red-brown hair and a gentle, engaging smile. "Morning," he said. "I'm Daniel Picard."

Extending a hand to shake his, Jean-Luc had to let go of Beverly's hand. She barely noticed as she studied Daniel's face. The line of his jaw reminded her of the pictures she'd seen of her father and his nose was more like Jean-Luc's. There were tears in his eyes, and he held up his other hand, reflexively hugging his father.

Jean-Luc noticed after a moment and awkwardly hugged the man who was, in a manner, his son. Beverly's heart clenched, and she hugged him shyly when it was her turn. Daniel's embrace was much tighter than her own, and he held her a moment longer than she did.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "You just- you look so much like my parents." He pointed at the door. "I hope you're hungry, there's a fantastic little cafe down by the waterfront. I think you'll love it."

Beverly and Jean-Luc looked at each other and when she nodded, he spoke.

"Thank you."

"Of course, captain," Daniel beamed. "Can't have you eating replicated on Earth, not with all the restaurants we have nearby."

"Call me Jean-Luc, please."

Daniel's smile remained in place but he still looked like he was on the verge of tears. "I'll try. Captain seemed less disconcerting than 'dad'."

"But he was an admiral, wasn't he?" Beverly asked, curious. She walked on one side of Jean-Luc, marvelling at how close their heights were.

"Most of my life," Daniel agreed, leading them out into the foggy morning. "I have a few memories of gold old 'D, Captain Daddy and Doctor Mommy."

Beverly's cheeks warmed as the blush crept over them. "Really?"

"Will Riker started it," Daniel explained. His smile was a little easier now and he stared at both of them as much as they stared at him.

"Of course he did." Jean-Luc shook his head. "Still can't believe he made Admiral."

"It looks good on him," Daniel promised. "Keeps him busy while Deanna travels."

"Ambassador Troi the second." Beverly slipped her hand back into Jean-Luc's. "Your daughters are lovely."

"I've always thought so," Daniel said, beaming. "I am sorry for your abrupt transition into my timeline. I know it can't be easy for you to be here, knowing you were already."

"It seems like we had successful lives," Jean-Luc observed.

Daniel coughed, trying unsuccessfully to hide a laugh. He pointed to the statue on one of the corners of the garden they'd been walking through. "That's your statue. Admiral and Doctor Picard, tireless Starfleet heroes."

Beverly stopped walking but Jean-Luc pulled her ahead. Together, they stopped in front of the statue and stared up at marble representations of their elder selves. A plaque beneath the statues' feet explained that they had died in a rescue mission that saved thousands.

"Not the easiest legacy to live up to," Daniel joked, smiling up at the marble faces of his parents. "Abby does fairly well, she's one of Starfleet's best transwarp engineers. She's always on the far reaches of the galaxy, doing something important and scientific." He waved his hand and shook his head. "She's all intellect. Big heart, but science became her husband when David died..." he kept talking but Beverly stopped walking as if she'd been stunned.

"Her husband died?"

Jean-Luc's hand caught her lower back.

"Security chief," Daniel said. He reached for her shoulder and squeezed it. "He went fast. Their little boys came to live with my wife, Roshana, and I. Roshana's the commander of Deep Space Twelve and she's Betazoid so I've learned to say whatever's on my mind. I did anyway, she just gives me a good excuse."

He pulled out Beverly's chair and waved over the waiter. "Pot of Earl Grey, and a raktajino, if you please."

"Where was I..." he titled his head and clucked his tongue once before he smiled. "You've met my girls. Senrika works for temporal investigations. Yaxara's thinking of command track, but she'll never admit it. My son Xosen studies music, and he's become quite good. Abby's boys are Sam and Leo. Leo's been running the winery for the last few years and Sam writes some of the most spell-binding holonovels you can get your hands on."

Jean-Luc sipped his tea and listened, but Beverly could only stare at hers. She ordered food she wasn't sure she could eat and fed on Daniel's stories instead.

Reading their logs had given them an skeletal idea of their life. Sitting with Daniel put colour into how they'd lived. He laughed and cheered up both of them until they could laugh with him. All the stories that were old to him, were new again and they sat long after the plates were gone and the third pot of tea was empty.

"You'll come to graduation?" Daniel asked, standing in the sunlit garden as he walked them back.

"Of course," Beverly answered for both of them. Jean-Luc had his arm around hers again and it was become a habit.

"Admiral Riker and Ambassador Troi will come pick you up, 1800 I think," Daniel paused then nodded. "You can meet everyone then. Take the afternoon, sit on the beach."

Jean-Luc shook his hand, and then they hugged with an enthusiasm that made Beverly's eyes sting this time. She clung to her son almost as if he were Wesley when he hugged her good bye.

"Take some time," Daniel suggested. "You'll get used to it here. You're the most adaptable people I know. You survived my siblings and I, after all." He waved at them both before heading off towards the his quarters.

Beverly sank onto the bench. The scent of roses drifted on the breeze. Jean-Luc sank down beside her and she dropped her head to his shoulder. They sat in silence for a moment, then another. His hand ran gently across her cheek.

"What do we do?" she asked lightly.

Jean-Luc's fingers dropped to her hand and held it close. "We find a new path."

She turned her face to him, meeting his eyes and finding the love in her heart reflected in his. "Together."

"I don't think I could do it another way," he whispered before he kissed her again. This time, they met exactly.  


* * *

_Epilogue - one year later_

"Captain Picard," the tactical officer announced from behind them. "The _Enterprise_ is hailing us."

"Perfect timing," Jean-Luc muttered in the centre seat of the Hypatia-class _Portia_ and Beverly smirked at him.

"Captain Janeway is like that," she reminded him.

"Captain Picard!" Captain Alice Janeway, a petite women with long dark hair just starting to grey, beamed at them both from her bridge. "I hear congratulations are in order."

Beverly smiled innocently at him as Jean-Luc began to flush scarlet.

"Thank you."

Sucoren, the first officer, bit her lip to keep from chuckling. "Wasn't me, sir."

Beverly shugged as well.

Janeway took pity on Jean-Luc after a moment of suffering. "Admiral Riker told me in Starfleet's last communique. A little girl...doesn't get much better than that."

Beverly reached across and took his hand. Jean-Luc squeezed her fingers in return and tried to find his composure. He'd been a wreck of happy nerves since she'd gotten pregnant.

"No, Captain, it really doesn't."


End file.
